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Health & Fitness

Cooking the Numbers

Cooking the Numbers

 

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Thanks to Molly Nesham from Mathnasium of St. Peters, MO for the following:

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“One mixing bowl, two spinning beaters, three separated eggs, four sticks of butter, and five pounds of sugar; who says math is boring?  Putting aside the calorie counting, there are dozens of opportunities for kids to learn math in the kitchen, especially measurement and fractions. 

 

The trick to having children learn about measurement and units of measure is to provide them with meaningful experiences that highlight measurement, and to repeat the experiences until all aspects of measurement become second nature.  When you tell your child there are 16 ounces in a pound, have him weigh out a pound of candy or nuts and see how heavy the bag is.  Compare it to a half-pound bag of coffee, chips or pretzels or a two-pound slice of ham.  This provides the child with an image of the idea of a pound, its parts and its expansions.  You can expand this concept when you are buying a ham or turkey for a family gathering.  If each guest would eat about 4 ounces of turkey, let your child tell you how many pounds of turkey you need to buy, and help him pick the right sized bird.

 

When you have to beat eggs for one minute, remind your child that there are 60 seconds in a minute and count to 60 (at the rate of one count per second), so the child can get a feeling of how long both a second and a minute are.  If the roast needs to bake for 15 minutes per pound, explain that 15 minutes is a quarter of an hour and let your child figure out when the roast should be done.  Using an analog clock is good practice for counting by fifteens, too. 

 

When you are cooking and baking, especially for a crowd, it is hard to avoid using fractions.  Students in Sixth Grade and higher should know most of the fraction facts listed below; these facts and concepts form part of the fabric of knowledge- the foundation for success in the middle school and high school math classroom.  Most teachers assume that students already know these things.  See how many of them you can review when you are cooking, whether you have to triple a recipe or cut it in half. 

 

  • A half plus a half equals a whole.
  • One-fourth plus one-half equals three fourths.
  • Three-fourths and three-fourths makes one and one-half.
  • Dividing something in half makes two equal parts.
  • Half-of-a-half is a quarter or one-fourth or 1/4.
  • Half-of-a-quarter is an eighth or 1/8.
  • Half-of-an-eighth is a sixteenth or 1/16.
  • Half-of-a-sixteenth is a thirty-second or 1/32.
  • You can cut a line segment in half forever.
  • A quart is a quarter of a gallon—four quarts make a gallon. (Also point out that it is called a quart because it is a quarter of a gallon, just as a quarter – 25 cents- is a quarter of a dollar)
  • A pint is half of a quart—two pints make a quart.
  • A cup is half of a pint—two cups make a pint.

 

Having your kids help you plan your holiday meals shows them practical applications of what they are learning in school.  You can also get more tips on how to help your child develop number sense and boost their math skills at Mathnasium, The Math Learning Center, at 1700 Post Rd, Fairfield and 15 Corbin Dr, Darien (and soon in Greenwich). 

 

For more than 30 years the Mathnasium Method has taken a consistent, common sense approach to what students need to learn, and when and how they need to learn it.  It incorporates the orderly development of basic number facts, math concepts, and problem solving skills. These elements are introduced in proper developmental sequence, and utilize mental math and written algorithms at appropriate times.”

 

 

On a personal note this is also a good opportunity to remind them the importance of units and why they should ALWAYS be included.   Help them to understand that we use different units of measurement for weight, volume and distance and emphasize being able to visualize them.  

 

For older students incorporate some science – e.g. why do egg whites become white when heated?   Because the proteins making up the egg white (albumin, also a major constituent of blood) become denatured (the hydrogen bonds are broken and the protein gets a new shape, which is opaque).     Why do we add salt to boiling water?  It causes the water to boil at a higher temperature.   If you like hard boiled eggs will it be quicker to boil them on the beach or the top of a mountain?   Beach because water boils at a lower temperature on top of a mountain because of the lower air pressure.    

 

Points to Ponder:   Probability can be confusing.   A statistics professor likes to start her class giving the students the following task.   Half of the class is asked to record the actual flip of a coin 100 times; the other half is asked to imagine the flip of a coin 100 times.   The professor leaves the room and the students record their results on the board.   When the professor returns she is immediately able to tell which group flipped the real coin.    She does this by looking for a sequence of “heads” or “tails” of more than 4 in a row, knowing this will be the real coin.   Although the odds of getting either heads or tails is 50%, statistically it is “likely” that there will be a “string” of the same flip in a large enough sample, but “intuitively” we feel like this shouldn’t happen and so the group doing the imaginary flip will usually limit the number of repeats.

 

Math Humor:   Why is the number 10 afraid of 7?

Because seven ate nine.

 







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